Like many RPG’s before, Neverwinter Nights and Shadows of Undrentide shoved me into the world as a Level 1 tyro, barely able to lift a sword. My first combats against weak goblins and rats were well-balanced, and required planning and strategy just to survive. As the game progressed, and my character leveled higher, the hero was rewarded with more powerful equipment, abilities, and items after defeating newer and tougher monsters. Being rewarded with a Longsword +3 or Amulet of Fortification +2, for example, was greeted by tremendous personal exhilaration at having defeated a dangerous monster or solving a thorny quest. Furthermore, this constant and gradual level progression, matched by the hero’s foes, is what make RPG’s so entertaining to play. Is there any difference between how you play a Level 15 Barbarian and a Level 30 Barbarian? There sure is between a Level 1 Barbarian and a Level 5 Barbarian, or the first time you can perform Cleave.

In contrast, my Level 15 “Superman”, with heady equipment, and powerful abilities and feats, right away faced off against tough Drow clerics, mages and guards, something that, while playing the prior games, was anticipated for hours before such an event occurred. Why, my hero even discovered a Longsword +3 at the very outset of the game just lying in some remains.​